The rumours were true

Posted by Magda
Reporting on rumours can be tempting, though it's a clear journalistic no-no. It's interesting to note, though, that I heard yesterday the city would get $1 million of the $3.3 million they asked for from the feds to move the Civic Museum into the convent -- and today it turned out to be true. If only there were a sure-fire way to sort the true rumours from the false.

Comments

[Edward Pickersgill]

Is the $1m from Ottawa conditional on getting any certain amount from the province?

[Magda]

It's not conditional. But council decided in October that they'd go ahead with the move only if they got $6 million from other levels of government ( http://news.guelphmercury.com/article/248345 ). They're expecting to hear in March on their $5 million application to the province. Clearly they'll be in trouble if that money doesn't come through, but they won't have to give the federal money back.

[Edward Pickersgill]

Very cool. So the feds didn't just announce the $1m but also delivered it and if the province doesn't up the $5m to net out the $6m then the city get to keep the $1m. That's quite fantastic.

Normally the feds would commit that kind of money in principle and deliver it in stages as the work is done and as expenditures are documented and inspections confirmed... Normally the province works the same way.

:-)
Perhaps indeed Jim Flaherty has gone mad and forgotten everything the Irish Christian Brothers drummed into his head back in the 1960s. Perhaps the federal government has learned how to trust municipalities....

But perhaps not.

[Magda]

Sorry, perhaps I've confused you. The federal money isn't conditional on cash from the province, but it's earmarked specifically for the convent, and there's a deadline for when it needs to be spent. The deadline was originally the spring of 2010, though museums director Katherine McCracken told me Friday that might be pushed back a bit, since the federal announcement was delayed.

[Edward Pickersgill]

:-) still mighty unusual for the feds to have actually handed the money over already. I still haven't heard you or the city say the money is in the bank here in Guelph.

[Magda]

I'm actually not sure how that kind of thing works... I'll do some investigating.

[Magda]

Update: Katherine McCracken from Guelph Museums says she expects the money to come along as the project progresses.